We live in an age where instant gratification is king, constant stimulation is necessary, and community (be it online or in person) is vital. We wonder how our mothers and grandmothers were able to keep their sanity without disposable diapers, cable television, cell phones and of course, the ability to blog!

Even if i would have kept up with reading the newsreader everyday, that’s still somewhere between 50-100 blog posts a day to read. At first, those subscriptions served the purpose of keeping me in the loop for a few different fields I was interested in, namely web design, web development, programming, and the Packers. Now they are just remnants of something that started me on my path towards information addiction and subsequently, information overload.

If you spend close to 24 hours online and it is damaging a lot of aspects in your life and your personal relationships, then there is a huge chance you can already be suffering from smartphone addiction.

People now find it hard to interact with others in a real social setting. A friend of mine complained that she went to dinner with her friends and all they did during the evening was to check Google to help them resolve disputes and find out petty information. It got to the stage where she had to give them rules where they could only access the Internet 3 times each during the night and even that was hard for them. The conversations also revolved around Twitter and Facebook!

Promise yourself not to touch the computer until everything on that list is done, and get to work! Throw a sheet over the computer if you need to keep it from distracting you, or get a friend to hide the power cord if you keep wandering to the machine. Once your list is done collect the cord, or uncover your computer and turn it on while you relax to a cup of your favorite beverage.

Another group of people at risk are people who are depressed, often turn to the internet. The internet distracts them from their feelings but to much time online can actually make the depression worse.

With an entire cable show dedicated to animal hoarding, it can be a serious and bizarre addiction. It is defined by Dr. Owen Kelly of about.com as the desire to keep animals to the point where they become too much for the owner and a hazard to both people and pets alike. As many as 33 percent of the millions of people who compulsively hoard are thought to involve animals in the process.

Random thoughts will culminate in Google searches lasting for hours instead of the estimated minutes as we click page upon page engrossed in the cornucopia of information before us. A quick game before dinner ends up lasting well past when we were supposed to eat, and if we were the ones designated to cook – oops!

Because none of us would be here if babies didn’t happen, it doesn’t seem like it can be addiction, but some women can actually become addicted to becoming pregnant and having children. As reported on with Nadya Suleman, aka Octomom, the addiction left her delusional enough to think she could care for fourteen children. Samantha Chang, the Celebrity Fitness and Health Examiner, has more.

I did a search for information addiction on Google a few minutes ago (please refrain from pointing out the irony of searching for information about information addiction on the internet, I know it’s hypocritical). There’s actually a wikipedia entry about information addiction, albeit a short one, as well as another entry about smartphone addiction. Upon reading both of those, I realized that i was actually suffering from some sort of disorder. Basically a technological ADD.

Is e-mail that big a deal? Do we really need access to it 24/7, no matter where we are? Well, more than 5 million BlackBerry users indicate that we do. If you think you have a problem, there is help; however you will have to fly to Chicago to get it. The Sheraton Chicago Hotel now offers BlackBerry detox services for those afflicted with the obsession. Maybe soon, Boston, the Lenox will rescue you from your constant computer cravings.

When you are happy, your will-power becomes strong, but when you get disappointed it decreases and becomes weak. When you’re at the top of your achievements your will-power may be an iron one, but when you hit the bottom, your will-power gets down to the minimum level.

Sometimes you can’t break a habit because a part of you wants it. Yes, you may want to stop smoking because of the health risks associated with smoking but on the other hand another part of you wants you to smoke in order to enjoy the cigarette. In this case ignoring the need of one of your parts will result in suppressed emotions and unmet needs which will in turn lead to feeling uncomfortable and so you will eventually return back to the bad habit.

Did you know that soda is a billion a year industry? With so much money at stake, it isn’t surprising that a significant portion of that is coming from addicts. The blogger at Going Like Sixty discusses how he became addicted to soda and how he got through it.

The problem becomes even worse if you need your computer to do work. If you do, then you should keep your computer at home off, or at least offline. If you are not using a computer at work and find that you are having problems with your home computer, but cannot simply turn it off, there are a few things that you can do. The first is to set up a new user on your system who doesn’t have access to instant messaging, and can only use a few web sites. That will put a damper on your extraneous surfing. If you do not have an always-on connection (ie if you use dial-up) then the problem is a little easier. Just don’t connect. That will make it easier for you to keep yourself from the distractions that the internet provides.

Every time a new diet comes out, do you know someone who is already on it? They may be diet addicts. According to Brainz, diet addicts constantly feel the need to live up to standards that are virtually impossible to obtain. They even discuss healthy, neurological ways to counter a diet addiction.

It is okay to have a life outside of the Internet, it just means that you have your priorities straight. Let’s be honest: What are the odds of you actually meeting all of those people you hang out with on the forums? Don’t condemn yourself however! Some of my closest friends are people I have never met, and some of your friends may be as well! It is easier to relax and be yourself online knowing that you have not met and probably never will meet that person you’ve spent hours with debating nosehair remedies! We’ve all done it, we all will continue to do it – the trick is to not allow our physical lives to suffer for the sake of our online existence!

I did a search for information addiction on Google a few minutes ago (please refrain from pointing out the irony of searching for information about information addiction on the internet, I know it’s hypocritical). There’s actually a wikipedia entry about information addiction, albeit a short one, as well as another entry about smartphone addiction. Upon reading both of those, I realized that i was actually suffering from some sort of disorder. Basically a technological ADD.

Your lack of exercise, exposure to sunlight and pollutants, bad nutrition will cost you! No wonder you’re seeing many health care and gyms in the downtown district. This so called, a life style disease also brought fitness and health business to emerge.

You too must know if you have any kind of external dependency that is preventing you from breaking your habit. Don’t run away, if you want to escape, then go ahead, but escape forward instead of backwards.

Yes, you read that right. People can actually become addicted to eating frozen water, which even has its own name: pagophagia. However, far more than a bizarre food addiction, pagophagia can actually be an indicator for iron deficiency anemia. Check out this blog post by Kevin MD with more.

Presumably you join a group for a reason. Perhaps you like the people, you want someone to communicate with or you like signing guestbooks. Perhaps you want to contribute to the causes that the group supports.

Pushing the Limits – The inability to limit your usage online is clearly a sign of addiction. You shout down the hall that you are almost done to your family and another hour goes by before you shut down the machine. This is bad, very bad.

If we all need food to live, how can it become an addiction? Dr. Mark Hyman discusses the obesity epidemic and how a food addiction can be part of that. He also discusses which foods are more prone to addiction.

Learn to discriminate unhealthy reactions to stress: distinguish between reactions that are detrimental and those that are beneficial. Always remember: acting under stress will only make the situation worse.

People now find it hard to interact with others in a real social setting. A friend of mine complained that she went to dinner with her friends and all they did during the evening was to check Google to help them resolve disputes and find out petty information. It got to the stage where she had to give them rules where they could only access the Internet 3 times each during the night and even that was hard for them. The conversations also revolved around Twitter and Facebook!

Limit the time you spend on the internet. Decide on a time to limit yourself on the use of internet. As soon as your time is up, remind yourself that you can still browse the next day. Turn of the computer and go outside. Take a walk and think about the things you will do to keep you busy. This will help you take away your mind from the use of internet, thus preventing your rationalization of extending more time. Plan a schedule ahead such as conducting a meeting with your loved ones after your time is up.

Another difference is that a techneck doesn’t know who his or her neighbors are! He/she might sneak a peak as they pull into their garage, or barbeque something in their back yard, but the techie wants nothing to do with in-your-face personal relationships except of course on Facebook where a techneck will have at least ten thousand friends all of which are techies too, which make the impersonal communications so much more delicious.

If you spend close to 24 hours online and it is damaging a lot of aspects in your life and your personal relationships, then there is a huge chance you can already be suffering from smartphone addiction.

So, how do you know if you are a social media addict? Well, there are all kind of studies on addiction and books on why they occur. I believe that like most addictions in life, you know when you have a problem, whether you admit it or not.